


Johnny B. Goode

by Yellowbirdbluetoo



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: M/M, Really tells you who’s story this is, Set directly after S6, in a way kind of replacing season 7
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23425117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellowbirdbluetoo/pseuds/Yellowbirdbluetoo
Summary: The ninja just can’t catch a break. After the defeat of Nadakhan, things in Ninjago City have cooled down. At least they had. Now a new villain has showed up, and brought some flames with him. That and he bears a striking resemblance to one of the Ninja!
Relationships: Cole/Jay Walker
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Johnny B. Goode

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, sooooo I have a love/hate relationship with the use of time travel as a plot device. So we’ll see how this goes.
> 
> Also uhhhhh Kai is my favorite so that’s why the story focus on him
> 
> The title is the name of the song from Back to the future 2

“I have never been so bored”. Cole groaned dramatically, running a hand through his hair.

The ninja were hanging around the new hideout, sat at upon the only remaining floating piece of land from Nadakhan‘s attack. After a lot of aerial trips and unpacking, they were all setting in to the new place. They were all sitting around on the steps of the base, temporarily burdened with nothing to do.

Kai huffed. “Tell me about it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Ninjago to be nearly destroyed again any time soon, but is an occasional robbery or something too much to ask for?”.

“I’ve been telling Master Wu we should get a pool! But he keeps saying that this a Ninja base, not a frat house”. Jay shrugged, glancing back slightly at the large doors behind them, afraid they might open up and reveal their Sensei.

Bemoaning about being bored almost always attracted Master Wu’s attention and he would always recommend chores or training as a cure to boredom . 

“We should get some training done during all this free time”. Lloyd spoke up. 

Kai rolled his eyes. “Please stop, you sound like Master Wu”.

“Zane, caculate chances of us convincing Wu to get a pool?”. Nya looked up from her book to address the Nindroid. 

He glanced up from where he’d been polishing his weapon. “I’d say below 2.7 percent chance. I doubt he will budge”.

Cole stood up and stretched. “Well I’m bored, and hungry. Anyone want snacks while I’m up?”.

“Ooh!”. Jay clapped his hands. “Grab me some-“.

Kai’s communicator suddenly rang loudly, interrupting Jay, who sent a halfhearted glare at him. The fire ninja chuckled nervously before fishing the device out to see who was calling.

“I’ll bet it’s his girlfriend Skylor”. Cole teased, making a kissy face. 

Kai scowled. “Shut up! We aren’t even dating. And it’s...”. He frowned, seemingly surprised at the name. “Ronin?”.

He answered, putting the device on speaker. 

“Hey Ninja! You might wanna get down here to Ninjago, something’s going down! Doesn’t look good”.

“Tell them about the fire guy we saw!”. Dareth’s voice cut through and they could hear Ronin huff in response. “You’re on speaker. Anyways get down here-“.

“I’m on speaker? Oh! Hey fellow ninja!”.

“What do mean, fire guy?”. Lloyd interrupted, leaning in to hear better.

“He means, he’s got powers like Kai! We saw him blasting fire all over the place!”.

Cole frowned. “Wait, can’t there only be one elemental master at a time per element?”

“Yeah”. Cole chimed in. “This guy can’t have Kai’s powers! ”.

“Whatever it is, we need to get down there and see what’s up. I’m not a fan of copycats”. Kai said, hanging up the communicator and turning to Lloyd, who nodded in agreement.

“If someone’s out there with your power, there could be more out there with all our powers. We need to find out what’s going on before anything gets crazy”. He nodded at them. “Ninja go!”.

-/-

They hopped off their dragons and landed in the middle of Ninjago square, and scanned the area. It was devoid of any citizens.

“That’s weird”. Nya noticed, observing the empty pavilion. “It’s a Friday afternoon, this place should be packed”. 

They all turned at the sound of screams coming from down the block. 

Jay grinned nervously. “Well, now we know where to go”.

They rushed off in the directions the screaming had come from, and they all skidded to a stop at what they saw.

A mysterious figure, hidden in a red cloak and mask was perched on a car, shooting fire from his hands. People were running away from the general area trying to avoid getting blasted.

“That sure does looks like my power”. Kai said, tugging his mask over his face and moving into a fighting stance. The others followed suit. “Let’s see what this guy wants”. Lloyd said.

“Zane, Jay, and Nya you take the left. Me, Cole, and Kai will take right. Kai, be careful. Your elements will cancel each other out and make elemental fighting hard for you”.

Kai scoffed. “Oh don’t worry, I can take the heat”.

They all leapt into action.

-/-

Their enemy stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw them, and they paused, suddenly in a face off. Six against one.

Kai, even impatient, rushed forward first and managed to pin the attacker in moments. The others hurried to surround him. 

“Alright”. Kai got a grip on the guys mask. “Let’s see who you are”. He pulled off the mask and froze at the sight.

It was Kai’s face. Undoubtedly. But it was obviously years older. Decades. Somewhat matching the version of himself from the future they’d seen in the underground ice labyrinth. 

He locked eyes with Kai and smirked. “Guess I’ve gotten rusty”. 

Kai just blinked in surprise, slowly standing up and releasing the other version of himself. “You’re ... you’re me?”.

The other Kai stood as well, brushing himself off and sighed. “Yep. And I really need to speak with Master Wu. Sorry if my method of finding you guys was a bit flashy”. He gave a smirk that said he was anything but sorry.

“Uh, hold up”. Jay let out a sardonic laugh. “Don’t just act like this is no big deal! Are you like, from the future?”

Lloyd crossed his arms. “The real question is why is he here?”.

“Or why the other future versions of us aren’t here?”. Nya spoke up. 

Kai still looked shocked. “This is so weird. You’re me from like, the future?”.

Future Kai chuckled. “Ain’t it obvious?”. He gestured to his hair that was undeniably Kai’s signature style, albeit with a few strands of grey mixed in.

Lloyd approached the future Kai. “Let’s get you to Sensei Wu, and you can explain everything”.

-/-

Sensei Wu looked nearly as shocked as the rest of them to see the future Kai. “Tell me Kai, what brings you to the past?”. 

“Wait, sorry, can we give you another name?”. Jay sheepishly interrupts. “Because this whole ‘having the same name’ thing is going to get very confusing very fast”.

Future Kai raises an eyebrow and shrugged. “Uh sure... I guess just call me...Flame?”.

Kai raised an eyebrow at his future self. “Okay Flame. Why are you here?”.

Flame sighed. “I can’t reveal much, but my future isn’t great. Something happens in the past- soon- and it isn’t good. I’m here to help stop it”.

The ninja exchanged looks and Lloyd stepped forward. “But to change anything is-“.

“To change everything, yeah yeah, I know...you’ve said that to me before.” Flame gave Lloyd a strange look before shaking his head and continuing. “Look I know there’s a big risk in coming back, but this was our only option”.

Wu hummed thoughtfully. “May I ask where the future others are?”.

At that Flame tensed slightly, and shook his head. “I’ve been told to give you as little information about future developments as possible. No future spoilers from me. Sorry”. He shrugged, and crossed his arms for good measure. 

Wu gave a small grin, and Flame relaxed slightly. “Well, why don’t we have dinner. You can tell us everything tomorrow. I’m this has been quite the ideal for you”.

Flame nodded. “Sure. Dinner sounds.. nice”.

Kai, without being noticed by the others, frowned. His past self was definitely hiding something. Bad enough that Wu didn’t want it brought up yet. It must be really horrible. Something awful.

Kai hated how the thought made him worry all throughout dinner, and getting into bed, to the point were his eyes didn’t agree on staying closed, and his mind stubbornly stayed on, buzzing and active. 

He sighed quietly to himself, creeping out of his top bunk and out of the room, quietly closing their door behind him. “At least I know someone’s having the same problem as me”.

-/-

“You know smoking is bad for you, right?”.

Flame didn’t visibly startle, and turned to face Kai with a head nod as a hello.

They were alone, finally. The others had gone to bed, and Kai couldn’t possibly sleep without speaking to his future self. He wasn’t exactly sure how he’d known he’d find Flame on the ship floating above the actual base, but he had. He was simply hanging out on the deck, smoking a cigarette. 

“Eh. It won’t kill me. Least, not till I’m Wu’s age”.

A moment of silence passes and Flame didn’t say anything else. So Kai slowly strode over and stood next to him, overlooking the edge of the boat and down at the city below.

“You have a lot of piercings”. Kai notes absentmindedly.

Flame chuckled. “Yeah. The first two”. He pointed at one ear. “Was a dare from Jay. The third one was a dare from Skylor-something about commitment”. He pointed to his eyebrow. “This one we got with Ronin at his bachelor party, when he an Dareth got hitched, and-”

“Wait what?!”. Kai gaped at himself.

Flame blinked and then groaned. “Shit. Future spoiler. I’m not supposed to say those. You cannot tell them! It’ll cause a bunch of future mumbo-jumbo”.

Kai let out a huff. “I know, it’s just.. like wow. I mean I guess now that you say it, they do hang out all the time. And Ronin is wayyy nicer to him than most of us. Like he gives him a discount on fake trophies whenever he gets new ones”. 

He paused and squinted out at the sky. “Actually how did none of us see this coming”. 

Smith laughed. “Yeah. We were all kind of blindsided by it too”.

Kai sensed the sadness when he spoke. “Why did you really come back alone? I know the others, there is no way they’d let us time travel by ourselves. Especially not without a way to communicate”.

Flame sighed. “You’re way smarter than people realize huh?”.

“Smart enough to realize your trying to deflect and change the subject”.

Flame huffed. “Smart-ass. Look Ninjago isn’t the same in the future as it is now. Stuff happens and everything kinda goes to shit. People...”. He swallowed. “People die. We loose people. No”. He cut Kai off. “I cannot tell you who. But I came back to fix it. I’d rather die than let it happen again. So it’s kind of a go big go home type deal”.

Kai nodded, taking in the information. “Okay. That does sound pretty horrible. But we can figure it out. We always do”.

Flame smirked. “Ah yes, youthful optimism. God I miss having that”.

Kai playfully shoved him. “Haha. I’m serious”.

Flame sighed. “I know. That’s what worries me”. He ruffled around his pockets and produced another cigarette, and held it out to Kai who(as 17 as he was) stuck his tongue out and ignored his own slightly coarser laugh that was aimed at him. 

Hanging with yourself wasn’t entirely bad.


End file.
